Synesthesia from Terri Timely on Vimeo.
Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!
23 June 2009
Synesthesia
This one will be short and lovely, guys. Not lovely on my part, but lovely on Terri Timely's part. They have put together a little video called Synesthesia; by the time three of my friends had sent me the link, I knew there must be a great reason for checking it out. This gem has been making its way around the web, and for good reason. See what I mean:
Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!
Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!
22 June 2009
Green Poll
Are any of you guys in a band? You'll want to read this then...
Green Man is an annual, three-day music festival in Wales, happening in late August. It has a really great-sounding lineup (more on this later), and you could be on the bill too, maybe.
Last week, I got a note from one of the Green Man guys, Rob, about a band contest they're having called Green Poll. All you have to do is register your band, upload a video, and wait for people to vote for you. The winner gets to not just play at the festival, but open the whole thing as the first band to play on the main stage. You would also get 6 free tickets for friends and family to see the whole thing, too. And you'd definitely be in good company, sharing the bill with Animal Collective, British Sea Power, Beach House, Four Tet, Grizzly Bear, Camera Obscura, and Gang Gang Dance, among many others. wow!
Hurry up - you have a week left. Just go to the Green Poll 2009 site and upload a video of your band (signed or unsigned) playing a song. That's it. Your peers will vote through two rounds, and the top 6 bands will get to compete in a Battle of the Bands competition at the end of July. A panel of music industry guys will then pick the winner to open Green Man 2009.
Here is a quick recap from their site:
Green Man is an annual, three-day music festival in Wales, happening in late August. It has a really great-sounding lineup (more on this later), and you could be on the bill too, maybe.
Last week, I got a note from one of the Green Man guys, Rob, about a band contest they're having called Green Poll. All you have to do is register your band, upload a video, and wait for people to vote for you. The winner gets to not just play at the festival, but open the whole thing as the first band to play on the main stage. You would also get 6 free tickets for friends and family to see the whole thing, too. And you'd definitely be in good company, sharing the bill with Animal Collective, British Sea Power, Beach House, Four Tet, Grizzly Bear, Camera Obscura, and Gang Gang Dance, among many others. wow!
Hurry up - you have a week left. Just go to the Green Poll 2009 site and upload a video of your band (signed or unsigned) playing a song. That's it. Your peers will vote through two rounds, and the top 6 bands will get to compete in a Battle of the Bands competition at the end of July. A panel of music industry guys will then pick the winner to open Green Man 2009.
Here is a quick recap from their site:
Round 1 - Voting closes at midnight on June 28 and the top 20 bands with the most votes go through to…If any of you win, maybe I'll make the trip to watch it myself also :) good luck!
Round 2 - Voting closes at midnight on July 12 and the top 6 bands with the most votes go through to…
Grand Final - A live Battle Of The Bands contest in London on July 23rd to find one lucky winner to open Green Man 2009 judged by a panel of music industry boffins
15 June 2009
The thrill of the location-based chase
I don't really have to write a lot about the fact that people continue to have fun by taking advantage of their cities with the help of technology. The return of the annual Come Out & Play Festival this past weekend (rats, I missed it!) and Newmindspace's ongoing popularity prove it pretty well.
Brands are doing a good job lately of releasing location-based services (click on that, it's awesome, more later this week) that manage to fit who they are and what they offer to people. To take it up a notch, I've been noticing a few that have been doing cool stuff with an already-existing service – yes,Twitter, bear with me – combining the nature of their product with our appreciation of location-based fun.
The first I noticed was Cupcake Stop, a truck that travels all over NYC to sell – yup – cupcakes.
[photo: roboppy]
Cupcake Stop's Twitter feed had hundreds reading before it even officially launched. During their "beta," they tweeted to test out routes, give previews of what flavors would be available (including an "invent our new flavor" contest), and let people know when and where they were baking. It was like a Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" neon sign on steroids.
Another food truck that did something like this is NYC Cravings, which sells Taiwanese meat and rice dishes. They park in a different spot every day, post their schedule online and use their Twitter feed for spur of the moment changes in plans and location prompts & reminders. Both Cupcake Stop and NYC Cravings leveraged the fact that they are mobile with a tool to help bring more people to them in a fun way.
Brands-who-move-around aren't the only ones who can do things like this, either. Handbag designer Rachel Nasvik created quite a stir over the past couple of weeks, when she hid 90 of her designs in secret spots all over the city and tweeted clues about their whereabouts.
Those clues are so awesome; reminds me of my Carmen Sandiego-playing days. Anyway, followers of this bag scavenger hunt feed (which has over 1,000 followers at this point) ran all over New York, from ATMs to public bathrooms and even our neighbors Van Leeuwen, to try to get their hands on one of the bags (which were also filled with goodies like cosmetics and key chains).
[photo: thrill of the chase]
The fun and inviting "come and get it" attitude is a great way to leverage the craziness that "time sensitive + limited availability" does to people. And the thrill of finding whatever it is you're chasing (be it cupcakes or a handbag) is SO HUGE. You turn the corner and go, "WOW, it's there! It's really there!" (Or at least that's how I reacted when I saw NYC Cravings, after planning my week around it and walking out of the way to get to the nearest location). Rachel definitely got more press than she would have with a more traditional giveaway; the event was covered by Daily Candy, NBC New York, Creativity Online, and Beyond Madison Avenue.
It may seem counter intuitive these days to think that it's good for a brand to make its consumers come to them, instead of the other way around. But the creative use of a nimble platform and a bit of fun changes the game completely.
EDIT | My friend Satish just sent me another cool example of a big brand doing this – Eminem. There was a Twitter feed sending people all over Detroit to find hidden concert tickets. Very cool.
EDIT 2 | My friend Anjeli commented on my cross-posting over at House of Naked... check out this wedding! It "incorporated [the couple's] favorite food carts for their reception by following Twitter." I agree on the photography too – beautiful. Wonder if they used the Leica Noctilux? ;)
Brands are doing a good job lately of releasing location-based services (click on that, it's awesome, more later this week) that manage to fit who they are and what they offer to people. To take it up a notch, I've been noticing a few that have been doing cool stuff with an already-existing service – yes,Twitter, bear with me – combining the nature of their product with our appreciation of location-based fun.
The first I noticed was Cupcake Stop, a truck that travels all over NYC to sell – yup – cupcakes.
[photo: roboppy]
Cupcake Stop's Twitter feed had hundreds reading before it even officially launched. During their "beta," they tweeted to test out routes, give previews of what flavors would be available (including an "invent our new flavor" contest), and let people know when and where they were baking. It was like a Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" neon sign on steroids.
Another food truck that did something like this is NYC Cravings, which sells Taiwanese meat and rice dishes. They park in a different spot every day, post their schedule online and use their Twitter feed for spur of the moment changes in plans and location prompts & reminders. Both Cupcake Stop and NYC Cravings leveraged the fact that they are mobile with a tool to help bring more people to them in a fun way.
Brands-who-move-around aren't the only ones who can do things like this, either. Handbag designer Rachel Nasvik created quite a stir over the past couple of weeks, when she hid 90 of her designs in secret spots all over the city and tweeted clues about their whereabouts.
Those clues are so awesome; reminds me of my Carmen Sandiego-playing days. Anyway, followers of this bag scavenger hunt feed (which has over 1,000 followers at this point) ran all over New York, from ATMs to public bathrooms and even our neighbors Van Leeuwen, to try to get their hands on one of the bags (which were also filled with goodies like cosmetics and key chains).
[photo: thrill of the chase]
The fun and inviting "come and get it" attitude is a great way to leverage the craziness that "time sensitive + limited availability" does to people. And the thrill of finding whatever it is you're chasing (be it cupcakes or a handbag) is SO HUGE. You turn the corner and go, "WOW, it's there! It's really there!" (Or at least that's how I reacted when I saw NYC Cravings, after planning my week around it and walking out of the way to get to the nearest location). Rachel definitely got more press than she would have with a more traditional giveaway; the event was covered by Daily Candy, NBC New York, Creativity Online, and Beyond Madison Avenue.
It may seem counter intuitive these days to think that it's good for a brand to make its consumers come to them, instead of the other way around. But the creative use of a nimble platform and a bit of fun changes the game completely.
EDIT | My friend Satish just sent me another cool example of a big brand doing this – Eminem. There was a Twitter feed sending people all over Detroit to find hidden concert tickets. Very cool.
EDIT 2 | My friend Anjeli commented on my cross-posting over at House of Naked... check out this wedding! It "incorporated [the couple's] favorite food carts for their reception by following Twitter." I agree on the photography too – beautiful. Wonder if they used the Leica Noctilux? ;)
10 June 2009
NYAFF 2009
Things have been a little topsy turvy lately, so apologies for the lack of posting. Here's a sneak preview for one thing that will make for a great couple of weeks, though. Yes, it's summer and you guessed it: the NY Asian Film Festival. This will be my third year going, and I am sure I won't be disappointed.
Here is the list of movies playing this year; judging by this trailer it's going to be an especially campy year.
Let me know if you'd like to go to any of these; otherwise I'll see you there. I'll be writing little bits on the ones I see as well. Stay tuned, dewa mata suguni ne (see you soon)!
Here is the list of movies playing this year; judging by this trailer it's going to be an especially campy year.
Let me know if you'd like to go to any of these; otherwise I'll see you there. I'll be writing little bits on the ones I see as well. Stay tuned, dewa mata suguni ne (see you soon)!
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